INYOKERN — Nearly two weeks after the Federal Aviation Administration dropped the bomb requesting proposals for unmanned aerial system test sites, the Inyokern Airport team is shifting into first gear.

Inyokern Airport has set the team up in a few rooms in the old Texas Instruments building for the proposal phase. The team is already in the process of converting it into ground zero for its efforts to secure Inyokern as a potential test site for UAS and unmanned aircraft vehicles.

Eileen Shibley, the UAS project manager for Inyokern Airport, was excited to have a building secured for the project's proposal phase.

"Usually when you do a proposal this size, you have a proposal room," Shibley said Saturday. "Inyokern Airport has given us a building."

She said all the infrastructure, from conference table to high speed Internet access, is being set up.

"We're really jazzed about it," she said.

Securing a site shows the resources the airport and the community is putting behind it as the UAS committee rolls up its sleeves and gets to work.

Most industry leaders and UAS project leaders expected the site selection proposal requirements from FAA months later than the Feb. 14 announcement. The FAA has already lagged behind an initial target date to secure six test sites by December 2012, citing potential privacy concerns.

The military has for years utilized UAVs and drones in various activities in multiple theaters, from remote bombing missions to stealth surveillance in hostile areas.

Incorporating UAV and UAS development into civilian use is expected reap large dividends in the private sector, and would benefit areas from law enforcement surveillance to forestry agencies scouting for fire areas, as well as potential agricultural use.

The federal agency released the request for proposal, labeled a "screening information request," with a short-term first deadline.

She said the first deadline had been met last week, essentially requiring the airport to notify the FAA of the intent to be considered a possible test site. The next major deadline is March 6 and the final leg is due May 6.

Shibley said most of her team is already in place, with just a few holes to fill.

While partnerships are currently pursued with other groups in light of a meeting in Palmdale, Shibley said the identities were still under wraps until all the legal niceties are hammered out.

"We've spent an awful lot of time last week with the lawyer on exactly what those partnerships are like," she said. Shibley also indicated that the Inyokern was engaging California for help and resources.

Several state and local agencies across the country have already thrown massive resources behind project teams in a bid to be one of six test sites, with Inyokern being one of a few potential test sites in California.

Page 2 of 3 - Congress pushed two bills into law in 2012, tasking the FAA with integrating a national UAV plan into civilian manned airspace by 2015.

Shibley said preparing the site proposal was by no means going to be a breeze.

"It is a pretty intense effort because it is a very aggressive schedule," she said.

A lot of her team's energies will be devoted to Volume 3, which Shibley described as "the heart of the proposal."

That portion of the proposal includes information on ground infrastructure, research objectives and airspace use.

The proposal itself is rigorously structured, down to how many pages are required for each phase.

In addition to the technical aspect of the project, the Inyokern UAS team is also tossing out fundraising feelers.

"Like every other competitive proposal, we need money to put this whole thing together," Shibley said. A number of people are already engaged in fundraising efforts.

One of the requirements the proposal specifically calls out is the types of terrain the test site area offers, something Shibley says likely won't be an issue for California.

"I think we are more competitive than probably any other place across the country," she said. "We have high desert, we have mountain terrain and we have maritime environments. We have areas that are very densely populated, high traffic and low traffic conditions."

She said that resources were Inyokern's largest challenge at the moment.

"We need money, it's that simple," she said. "We don't have many hurdles technically, we just have a challenge putting it all together, but I think that's the same challenge with everyone else."

Shibley said the matter of privacy — which the FAA is putting on the shoulders of all proposed test sites — will be detailed in a forthcoming volume. However, she said that it was of little concern.

"Everybody that submits will submit on privacy as well and we actually have really good plan of how to implement that," she said. "We take that (privacy) very seriously."

Paul Valovich, a director on the Indian Wells Valley Airport District Board, said the process was a one-step process that is set to become part of the base at China Lake.

"For China Lake to operate out of Inyokern Airport and a few hundred feet into restricted areas is a huge advantage to bring projects to the Indian Wells Valley," Valovich said.

Valovich is lending his expertise in proposal writing to the UAS team, which he said in a competitive process would remain under wraps.

Project member Bruce Lowry said he was ready to get started.

"It's exciting for me to be on the team," Lowry said while on a tour of the new UAS facility Monday. "I'm recently retired, this gives me something to do this is and very strong interest for me so I'm here to help any way I can."

Page 3 of 3 - Lowry, who used to head up the weapons simulation and test branch at Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division at China Lake, said securing Inyokern and the CalUAS portal as a test site would benefit the area.

"I think it will bring new business and opportunity for us to communicate not only with what is going on here but industry-wide and military working together," he said.

For information on the UAS project, Eileen Shibley is point of contact. She can be reached at (760) 382-1049 or via email at eshibley@me.com.